IBD Editorials

Is The EPA's Lisa Jackson Trying To Dodge A Federal Probe?

12/27/2012 06:56 PM ET

Politics: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced Thursday she's leaving her post. Is she getting out just ahead of an investigation into the illegal use of private emails for official government business?

Federal law bars government employees from using private email accounts for official communications unless the emails are appropriately stored and can be tracked. The objective is to ensure open government.

Apparently, though, Jackson would prefer to work in the shadows outside the disinfecting light.

Suspicions led the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general to launch a probe into Jackson's email use and prompted at least two congressional committees to dig around as well.

What we now know is that Arvin Ganesan, EPA associate administrator for congressional and intergovernmental affairs, confirmed to six interested House members on Dec. 12 that Jackson did indeed use the name "Richard Windsor" in secret email exchanges on a private account.

So what was communicated in these emails?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has filed a lawsuit demanding their release, believes they "relate to the war on coal Jackson was orchestrating on behalf of President Obama outside the appropriate democratic process."

Maybe it's a coincidence that Jackson, who attended Tulane University on a scholarship provided by Shell Oil, resigned only days after the Justice Department agreed to hand over 12,000 emails from Jackson's "Richard Windsor" account. But it looks like she's attempting to dodge an uncomfortable investigation.

Whatever the case, Jackson can't be allowed to simply walk away to spend more time with her family or move into academia, as some are suggesting. The probe must follow its course to wherever, and to whomever, it leads. If there is wrongdoing, appropriate penalties have to be meted out, or the government's pledge to do the business of the American people in the open is meaningless.

Though we wish we were celebrating Jackson's departure as a step toward a more rational, reasonable EPA, we expect the next administrator will continue the administration's war not just on coal, but on all fossil fuels.

Not only does Obama want to put coal plants out of business, he's also barred the Keystone XL pipeline, blocked crude production on federal land and cancelled offshore leases in tracts rich in gas and oil.

And at least two of his Cabinet members have expressed an appetite for higher gasoline prices while Obama himself has proposed hiking taxes on conventional energy.

No, it's likely Obama will replace Jackson with someone just as extreme as she is, if not more so. And probably equally as secretive.